The field of this invention relates to wrenches for turning multiple sizes of rotary fasteners and comprise at least two wrenches attached to one another, and more specifically to multiwrench sets that comprise a pivotal hinge that allow the wrench to be fold to a compact stowed position for carrying and an extended position for use.
The present state of wrenches technology is very diverse and there are many different types and styles of wrenches. It turns out to be relatively difficult to precisely define the difference between a permanently attached wrench and an interchangeable socket wrench. For the purposes of this patent the term “wrench”, “wrenches”, etc. will be used to refer to rotary fastener gripping tools that are permanently fixed to the end of a tool arm. This is in contrast to socket wrenches which by their very nature have removable gripping tools (the socket) to allow multiple gripping tools to be interchanged with a single non-ratcheting wrench handle or a ratcheting wrench handle. Generally, sockets are closed at one end with a connector designed to removably attach the socket to a ratchet wrench or other wrench handle (normal socket and ratchet see everyone is familiar with). However, recently ratchet and socket sets have been designed with pass through sockets and in these designs the ratchet wrench is designed to grip the exterior of the socket instead of connecting to a square hole. These pass through sockets still have a rather large axial length (height or profile) which helps distinguish them from wrench heads which tend to have a much shorter profile (axial length of the gripping end of the wrench). Note that for duplexed wrenches and rotary wrench heads (i.e. Dog-Bone® wrenches) where two gripping surfaces are stacked above one another, the axial height can be as much as three times the diameter of the largest gripping surface on the wrench head.
Wrenches normally come in sets of seven or more sizes with box ends and/or open end wrench heads. Though some wrench sets are for specific purposes that may have as few as four or five different gripping surface size, the vast majority of wrench sets are sold with seven or more individual wrench sizes. Multiple sizes allows the user to tighten and loosen rotary fasteners (bolts, screws, nuts, specialty fasteners, and etc.) on many types of mechanisms. Most American homes have at least one set of wrench in their home. Prior art wrenches include a multitude of ways of providing torque to various rotary fasteners, and can includes a ratchet mechanism that can be bidirectional (selectively reversible) or unidirection (ratchets in only one direction). Wrenches are defined in this patent to include relatively low-profile wrenches that have a small vertically dimension compared to the length of a socket and ratchet combination during use, and/or defined as being a gripping surface permanently attached to a particular handle (wrench arm, or arm) during normal use (not easy removed from the handle). Such wrenches can get into vertically tight spaces that the socket and ratchet wrench combinations cannot. Examples of wrench heads can comprise low-profile wrench heads such as box-end wrench heads, open-end wrench heads, flare nut wrench heads, low profile adjustable wrenches (i.e. crescent style, and other low-profile adjustable wrenches), dual and quad wrench heads (back-to-back wrench heads, low-profile socket style wrenches, specific-size torque wrenches, spanner head wrenches, logger head wrenches, and other low-profile wrenches. The invention can also useful for medium-profile wrenches, such as, plumbers style wrenches, dog bone wrench heads, and other medium-profile wrenches. Many of these wrench types can also include a low profile ratchet mechanism if desired. Wrenches like Dog-Bone® wrenches (Ready Wrench®), plumbers wrenches, and other thicker wrenches are on the upper end for wrench thickness that can still allow convenient folding of the multiwrench to a compact state using the folding technology disclosed herein. These thicker wrench heads can be used with off-axis folding so that the thicker wrench heads can fold to the side of each other for a more compact stowed position (see FIG. 2D). Further, the use of the term “wrench” and “wrenches” in this patent will not include permanently attached wrench heads with a profile taller than similarly sized Dog-Bone® wrenches (not more than approximately three times the diameter of the gripping surfaces). This distinguish the disclosed multiwrench designs from the multi-ratchet socket designs seen in U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 61/628,143, filed on Oct. 25, 2011, titled: “Folding Dual Ratchet Wrench” by the Applicant, which have sockets and ratchet head combinations that are greater in length than three times the gripping surface diameter of that socket, so that they can be used as an effective extension to the handle (socket has a profile height similar to the length of the center handle).
The wrench heads disclosed in this patent can use three different styles of wrenches: 1) single direction ratchets, 2) reversible ratchets, or 3) no ratchet mechanism at all. These three styles of wrenches are compatible with the presented folding multiwrench invention in various combinations. Each of these wrench styles can use one or more wrench head types, such as, 1) box-end head, 2, flare nut head, 3) open-end head, 4) spanner head, 5) bung head, 6) dog bone style rotary head (Ready Wrench®), 7) duplex head (two sizes facing in opposite directions) (U.S. Pat. D278,510), 8) overlapped heads (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,313,860; 6,131,492), 9) overlapped duplexed heads (4-sizes) (U.S. Pat. No. 7,926,393), 10) rotary dial head (U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,711), 11) multi-size ends (box and open), 12) adjustable box-ends (variable size opening) (U.S. Pat. Nos. D303,916; 4,838,132), 13) adjustable open-ends (Crescent®, plumbers, etc.), 14) self-clamping (U.S. Pat. Nos. 701,462; 897,665; 1,363,274; 3,290,970; 3,572,190; 4,048,456; 4,594,922; 6,311,586), 15) adjustable logger head (bionic wrench), 16) Channellock® style pliers, and 17) other specialty wrenches. This list of wrench head types is not all inclusive, but gives the reader a good idea of the types of wrench heads that are appropriate for use with the disclosed folding multiwrench. For example, “Pivotal Double Nested Wrench Ends” disclosed in U.S. Pat. Appl. 61/806,877 by the Applicant can be used with any of the folding multiwrench designs disclosed within this patent. The wrench heads types 6) through 17) can be considered multi-sized wrench heads and are the type of wrench head designs preferable for used with the disclosed folding multiwrench. Each of these wrench head types should be considered possible candidates for each wrench head discussed in this patent. Wrench types 1) through 5) can still be used with the disclosed multiwrench for some of the wrenches, but using multi-sized wrench heads will reduce the number of wrench arms and wrench heads needed for a particular wrench set, and thus makes the folding multiwrench more ergonomic.
These wrench head styles and types can each come in a variety of wrench gripping surfaces for use with different types of fasteners. The wrench gripping surfaces commonly used today comprise: 1) four-point standard (square shape), 2) six-point standard (hexagon shape), 3) twelve-point standard (double hexagon), 4) twelve-point spline, 5) lobed gripping surfaces (both six and twelve point), 6) saw toothed surfaces, 7) asymmetric gripping surfaces, 8) variations on these basic shapes and 9) many other shape specialty shapes for various purposes. This list of gripping surfaces is not exhaustive and many other gripping surface designs exist in the prior art that can be used with the disclosed folding wrench system.
The disclosed folding multiwrenches define one or more hinges designed to fold the wrench into a compact position for storage. Besides the hinges designed to fold the wrench into a stowed position, each wrench head can comprise a pivotal hinge near the wrench head so that the wrench head can be angled with respect to its arm to turn a rotary fastener (bolts, screws, nuts, and etc.) at various angles. The distance between these pivotal hinges and their wrench head is normally made small so that the wrench head can fit into tight spaces (see Figure-8® pivotal hinges 163 and 167 in FIG. 6C). Both the folding hinge(s) and the wrench head pivotal hinges can include a stabilizing means that provide sufficient friction and/or a locking action for the hinge so that the wrench can hold a particular position during use. Friction devices can comprise smooth motion friction systems (see FIG. 8C) and/or multiple stable position devices (see FIG. 7C, hinge assembly 190). The term “folding hinge” is used herein to particularly identify a hinge that is used to fold the multiwrench's arms, as opposed to other hinges like wrench head hinge 154e which is used to pivot wrench head 154 for use. These hinges can also comprise a locking mechanism to lock the wrench arms and/or head at particular angle (see FIG. 7C, hinge assembly 195) with respect to the rest of the multiwrench.
The disclosed invention combines a full set of wrench sizes into a single folding tool, that can fold over on itself like a book, or tri-fold like a pamphlet, to significantly reduce the overall stowed size of the folding multiwrench set. In many cases this means the multiwrench folds approximately in half (see FIGS. 2A-C, 3A-B, and 6A-C). In other configurations, the multiwrench arms can have slightly different lengths to allow the wrench heads to store adjacent, or nest next to, each other along the length of the arms (see FIGS. 3C, 5A-B, and 7A-B) instead of on top of the other wrench heads. Similarly, the folding multiwrench set can pivot the wrench heads to the side at an angle to allow the wrench heads to fold next to each other on the side for more compact storage (see FIG. 2D). The disclosed invention provides one or more pivotal hinges near the middle of the wrench to allow the multiwrench to fold into a substantial more compact configuration for storage. The disclosed invention also can provide two hinges that allow a tri-fold where a center handle is used that is approximately a third of the length of the fully extended wrench. Each hinge may include a friction mechanism and/or a locking mechanism to stabilize and/or hold the arms in a particular configuration during use. Prior art shows many friction and locking mechanisms that are commonly used with wrenches, ratchets, and other tools similar to the disclosed folding multiwrench. Both friction and locking mechanism examples are shown in this patent, but these example designs are only a small sampling of the many types of holding mechanisms for hinges and pivots that are presently designed for hand tools. Nearly all the hinge stabilizing mechanisms designed for hand tools can be easily made to work on the disclosed folding multiwrench.
Most combinations of wrench style, type and gripping surface shape can be used to make various folding multiwrenches using the disclosed technology. Also, combinations of different styles and/or types can be combined into a single multiwrench if desire. For example, a crescent type wrench could be combined with a full set of eight box head type wrench sizes (e.g. four duplexed wrench heads) to provide a more versatile multiwrench (see FIG. 6B).